Directed by Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird takes inspiration from the best coming-of-age films, such as Rushmore, Election, Donnie Darko, and Ghost World and improves on them by defying cliches, being truthful to the female teenage experience, and--a rarity in the teen movie Canon--having a truly good heart.
Lady Bird is not only one of the best films of 2017, I'd call it one of the top coming-of-age films ever.
The story follows Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson, played by Saoirse Ronan--who dazzled me in last year's excellent Brooklyn with her talent. Lady Bird is a unique teenager in a way we see in real life but rarely in film--she is a mess of contradictions. Her SAT scores are high, but her grades suck because she's smart but not really into school. She wants to go to college in New York City even though she's never been there. She loves the color pink and wants her "first time" to be special and memorable, but she also brutally sasses the speaker her Catholic high school brings in to talk about the evils of abortion. Lady Bird loves her family deeply and also takes them for granted, putting her own needs above the realities of her parents' financial struggles.
In short, she's a teenager. A beautiful, gloriously full of herself teenager.
The strength of the movie Lady Bird lies in its honesty. Not even "brutal honesty", which I find to usually be just as much of a lie as naiveté, but a simple, realistic look at the warring emotions and big dreams of 18-year-olds everywhere.
The film takes place in 2002 in Sacramento. A very specific time and place. The year resonated with me personally since I myself was 16-17 in 2002. Lady Bird and her best friend Julie swoon over the song "Crash Into Me" by Dave Matthews Band--a song that, in fact, was MY favorite song in 2002 and remains one of my favorites despite everyone loving to shit on DMB.
It's a really sensual, good song. It's about sex, ya know, with references to bondage ("Tied up and twisted/the way I like to be/for you, for me") and voyeurism ("Hike up your skirt a little more") that, uh, "spoke" to my hormone-addled 16-year-old brain.
ANYHOO. The point is, the movie really captures 2002 with a bullseye accuracy you don't often see in movies. The film it reminded me the most of was Wes Anderson's glorious Rushmore, only Lady Bird is firmly grounded in reality instead of Anderson's beautiful fantasy world of perfect symmetry and rich, velvety color.
Lady Bird's mother is played by Laurie Metcalfe, an amazing actress who does just a pitch-perfect job here as an extremely loving mom who can be both quite liberal (when Lady Bird asks "Mom...when is a normal time...to have sex?" She replies, "In college is good...and use protection like we talked about") and incredibly critical and overbearing. In one of the final scenes in the film, Metcalfe gives one of the best, most honest scenes of a mom's bittersweet sadness at realizing her baby is growing up that I have ever seen on film.
In addition to Metcalfe, the entire supporting cast, from Lois Smith playing Sister Sarah Joan, a nun at the school with a wonderful earnestness and sense of humor, to Lucas Hedges playing Danny, Lady Bird's kinda-sorta boyfriend, is great. The only teeny tiny flaw was the football coach-turned theatre director who came off as a one-joke gimmick (he treats directing Shakespeare like he's prepping a playbook for the big game! Hilarious! And totally unrealistic).
I feel like I could go through the movie scene by scene and tell you how great it is, but that would rob you of the chance to see for yourself. In fact, I've already said too much! Go see Lady Bird. It's one of the funniest, good-hearted but not sentimental portrayals of teen girlhood I've seen. And it's a bright spot in a year where we desperately need good feelings.
Grade: A+
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